Sioux City Bank Robber Pleads Guilty

A man who robbed a bank in downtown Sioux City, Iowa pled guilty April 13, 2012, in federal court in Sioux City.

Stephan Hall, age 53, from Sioux City, Iowa, was convicted of one count of bank robbery.

Information presented by the United States at the plea hearing revealed that on February 13, 2012, Hall, who has a lengthy criminal history, entered the First National Bank at 1703 Pierce Street in Sioux City, Iowa and changed two dollars into coins with a female teller. A little before 1:00 pm that same day, defendant reentered the bank, approached the same teller, and placed a note on the counter. Defendant said, “do what’s on the note and no one will get hurt.” When the shocked teller failed to immediately act, defendant again demanded, “do what’s on the note and no one will get hurt.”

The teller was scared into complying with the note. Defendant left the bank with the stolen money, and the teller and her colleagues phoned 911 for help.

Quick action by law enforcement and local citizenry resulted in the positive identification of defendant as the bank robber, and discovery of his planned escape route, which included a flight out of Omaha.

Sentencing before United States District Court Judge Mark W. Bennett will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Hall remains in custody of the United States Marshal pending sentencing. Hall faces a possible maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, $100 in special assessments, and three years of supervised release following any imprisonment.

Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is CR 12-4027.

This case was investigated by officers of the Sioux City, Iowa, Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Forde Fairchild.